Apr
23
A major annoyance of mine after installing a new instance of Visual Studio is when I open a XAML document for the first time. By default, Visual Studio opens a XAML document in Preview mode (the design on the top and the code view on the bottom). As you start adding more and more elements to XAML, Visual Studio will render the XAML in the design view, even going as far as playing video back if you have a MediaElement defined.
The option to turn this off is buried in the Options. The below figures show how to change the default behavior.
First click Tools > Options.
Then navigate to Text Editor > XAML > Miscellaneous. Check the box that says Always open document in full XAML view. If you don’t see Text Editor in the options menu, check the box Show all settings in the bottom left of the Options window.
Apr
22
Last night was the first Atlanta Silverlight Meetup. It was great meeting everyone and talking about the current state of Silverlight, architecture, design, and plans for future Silverlight Meetups.
The location was great, Gordon Biersch Brewery, and I would highly recommend the upstairs spot for a meetup. Next month we’re moving up north to the Five Seasons Brewing Company.
I would like to give a special Thank You to Glen Gordon for both helping promote the meetup as well as bringing some swag. His support was and will be crucial for the success of this group.
‘Til next month…i bid you ado.
Apr
22
The past couple weeks have been extremely hectic work, writing, and…this: Next Monday I am joining the dev team at IQ Interactive. It’s an exciting move because they’ve been traditionally excelled in Flash development. Now they are venturing into the world of Silverlight. Initially I’ll be working on an exciting, creative, and ground breaking Silverlight application (I wish I could say more, but mum is the word for right now). Additionally, IQ is dedicated to becoming a major player in the Silverlight space. I’m very excited to join the team and help make IQ a force to be reckoned with in Silverlight.
Every new beginning is accompanied with an end. Leaving Schematic is my end, and I’m leaving with a heavy heart. I can’t speak highly enough of my time with Schematic. When I started, my goal was to learn as much as I could about Silverlight. They provided me with all the opportunity to do so, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
Finally, the people at Schematic are amazing. Everyone I’ve worked with is at the top of their game producing amazing, high quality work. I wish everyone the best of luck and hopefully we’ll work together again.
Apr
09
A few weeks ago at MIX there were a number of Silverlight 3 announcements. One new component that I don’t think got enough attention was the Virtual Earth Silverlight Control. This essentially makes GIS in Silverlight more palatable. To be fair, this isn’t the first mapping tool for Silverlight. ESRI, the GIS leader, has had a Silverlight control for some time. More info on ESRI’s control can be found here: http://www.esri.com/getting_started/developers/silverlight.html.
To get started with the Virtual Earth mapping control I recommend three things:
- Watch the presentation from MIX - http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/T34F.
- Download the SDK from Connect - https://connect.microsoft.com/silverlightmapcontrolctp/
- Check out Chris Pietschmann’s post on how to get the control up in your project.
So far, I’m very impressed on how fast the control responses and pulls data. Do keep in mind when you’re using the control, the DLL is just under half a meg. So you may want to consider pulling this dll in dynamically or having it be a shared library.
Virtual Earth Web Services
Tying the map control into the Virtual Earth services is where the money’s at. The Virtual Earth Web Services in include Geocoding Services, Imagery Services, Route Services, and Search Services. For initial prototyping I have been only interested in the Geocoding services, but if you’re looking for more go to the MSDN documentation to find out more.
In order to use these services you’ll need to register. Out of everything so far, this was the hairiest part of getting things set up. Once you register you’ll have to go through an approval process that can take a day or so.
To get set up with Virtual Earch Live Services, see their page at http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/.
Mar
28
The other night I mildly expressed my frustration about the default size of a UserControl upon creation on Twitter. (Don’t you hate it when Height and Width are automatically specified; I always end up deleting it). Within a few minutes the official twitter account for the Silverlight team pinged me back asking what I would prefer. See the whole conversation below.
This type of conversation is highly significant because it demonstrates the Silverlight team gets it. Companies and teams can quickly gauge the public pulse with Twitter. Not only that but Twitter breaks down access barriers. So, if you have suggestions, praises, or gripes just know the Silverlight team is watching.
For more info specifically about the Twitter Silverlight account, check out Mossy Blog’s post - http://blogs.msdn.com/msmossyblog/archive/2009/03/26/the-silverlight-team-are-twittering-now.aspx
The above conversation was captured by TweetConvo. It works really well; just input the id of the latest conversation message and you get the whole conversation.
Mar
28
The past couple days I’ve been working on a data visualization application. In doing so, I quickly mocked up unfolding a box. This is super simple XAML all done in Blend. Don’t forget to check out the XAML and see the demo:
Download XAML | View example
Mar
19
In my last post about perspective 3d I showed a quick sample application on how to take an image, bind it to a slider and control the RotationY on the PlaneProjection object. It’s easy enough to hand code one image, but now I want to design an interface. So, I downloaded the newest version of Expression Blend 3. First, the new interface is awesome, and I’m stoked about the direction Blend is going. Anyway, after poking around, here’s how to access the Projection properties in Blend:
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Locate the Transforms panel in the Properties Panel and select the Show advanced properties button at the bottom.
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This opens up the Projection section. Here you can manually adjust the values and the object on the Artboard will update.
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Or, if you want to fine tune the projection click and drag the circle icon on the left. You’ll notice the icon turns blue when selected. I found this feature a little difficult to use; however it could be that this isn’t suppose to be used on a laptop touch pad.
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This is the resulting object on the Artboard with the corresponding Projection properties.
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Mar
18
Perspective 3D comes to Silverlight! Below is a simple example on how to add Perspective 3d to your project. First, this is what the resulting application is going to look like, then we’ll dive into the code:
Download the code | See the example in action
XAML
There are two new features of note in this example. First, and foremost, the projection 3d tag to the Image:
Secondly, is element binding. The below XAML shows a Slider with the Value property bound to the PlaneProjections’s RotationY value. Notice the mode is TwoWay, meaning values updated by either the Slider or the RotationY value. In addition to the Slider binding, the Text property of the TextBlock is bound to the Slider Value.
and binding the value of the Slider to the value of the RotationY:
C#
There is no code required to run this. All the magic happens with the element binding.
Mar
18
What a great first day at Mix. After talking with so many people over e-mail and Twitter, it’s wonderful to finally put a name with a face. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I haven’t hit the black jack tables, but that could only be a matter of time.
Here’s what my session schedule is looking like for Wednesday:
9:00am – Keynote
11:30am – 12:45pm – either What’s New in Microsoft Silverlight 3 T14F Lando 4204 or Going Inside Microsoft Silverlight: Exploring the Core CLR T71M San Polo 3401
2:15pm – 3:30pm – Building Amazing Business Centric Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3 T40F Lando 4204
4:00pm – 5:00pm – Principles of Microsoft Silverlight Animation T12F | Lando 4201 By: Jeff Paries
Finally, here are a couple pictures from MIX. The first picture is of all the swag in the welcome kit and the second is a billboard of Bette Milder. I had to take it because it is a testament to the art of airbrushing. Do you really think her legs look that good?
*The first pictures is by aforonda.
